Author Spotlight
Ben Henschel
Hey, I’m the press. I’m your enemy, according to the White House.
I’m biased, skewed, falsified and frivolous, and I’m not here to inform you anymore. Unless it’s on Fox and Friends, I’m actually here to lie to you.
The bad things I say about Trump? Lies. The possibility of Russian interference in his election? Fake news. Obstruction of justice into the Mueller investigation? No, it’s a witch hunt. If you really want the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth — give @realDonaldTrump a follow, end your subscription to The Times, and record Hannity on your DVR.
Some Americans would consider this an apt description of our nation’s press. That’s nothing short of shameful.
As an editor of The Harbinger, an advocate for unbiased news, a high schooler with the right to a free press, I’m disgusted with the modern picture painted of journalists.
Now I absolutely acknowledge the fact that fake news exists. It’s something that’s been around in the press for hundreds of years, from early New York Sun articles claiming to discover life on the moon, to Yellow journalism in the late nineteenth century, to coverage of Jennifer Aniston starting the “Celebrities for Trump” group.
These are factual errors present in journalism. Errors that have problems rooted in their truth, not those that are fake to us just because we don’t agree with the headline. When you read a negative article about your hero or favorite politician, you can’t just call it fake news. Put politics or high regard aside.
Is it fake news, or is it news you don’t want to hear?
Facts aren’t Democratic or Republican or Socialist or Communist. They’re pinpoints of history, and whether or not they’re detrimental to a particular party is irrelevant.
The press is here to deliver these facts to you and keep those with power in check. Without it, newspapers would just become glorified political propaganda. And it’s time that our leaders acknowledge its importance.
Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, recently said “truth isn’t truth.” Trump’s former campaign manager and consultant Kellyanne Conway defended one of the president’s lies by saying he was offering “alternative facts.” When Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House Press Secretary, was asked if the press was indeed the enemy of the people, she couldn’t confirm or deny.
For me, that’s where the line is drawn. Regardless of what these officials say, I’ll be damned if I don’t call America’s press my ally. Why? Not because of my political beliefs, or financial beliefs, or really any belief for that matter, other than one. A belief in democracy.
“Without an informed electorate, democracy fails.”
This concept has resonated with me ever since Journalism Teacher Lori Oglesbee mentioned it to our class at a workshop in Dallas this summer. If you had to guess, what do you think happened after she led her students to win one hundred and seventy-five high school journalism awards last year?
She got fired.
Not because of the quality of writing coming from her students or the techniques and skills they developed over the course of the year — those were highly acclaimed. It was the fact that she let her students publish unaltered and unfiltered stories. Stories that informed the school’s electorate, regardless of how positive the news was. Again, not fake news — just news that Prosper High School’s new principal didn’t want to hear.
Sound familiar?
Journalists like Oglesbee and her students are not your enemy. They’re the necessary and truth-seeking enemy of people that don’t want to be put in check. They’re the press.
This generation is going to be tested. Do we want to be one that yields to the suppression of truth, or one that combats it? Not with angry tweets, long filibusters, or ranting and name-calling — but with facts?
I’d be more than willing to be a part of this collective. So if you seek the truth, and nothing but it, I invite you personally to join me.
Hey. I’m actually the press. I don’t care what the White House calls me. I don’t care what you, or really anyone calls me, or what form I’m taking today. I’m a body of millions, dedicating myself to keeping the world’s electorate informed.
Whether it’s good or bad news, truth is always truth, alternative facts are not facts, and no amount of money or power can change that. So stand with me. Stand with the facts. Stand with those, in a bipartisan effort, who refuse to let me become an enemy of the people — because the one thing that school administrations, or the all-powerful, or even the White House can’t tear down?
The people’s bond with the truth.
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